History, Opinions, Imaginings

Packer Draft Kings

On the day of this year’s NFL draft, let’s take a look at the draft history of the Packers, broken down by the men in charge of the selections. I have given a grade to each first round pick on an A to F scale and computed a First Round GPA for each GM (although not all the selectors carried that title). I gave Incompletes for the four top picks who did not sign with Green Bay (Bob Gain, Randy Duncan, Lawrence Elkins and Bruce Clark) as well as 2015’s Damarious Randall, and Incompletes were not used in the GPA calculation.

For each Packer drafter, the following table shows the number of first round picks he had, his first round GPA, the number of Hall of Famers he picked, the number of All-Pro and Pro Bowl players he picked, the number of men he took who started for Green Bay for at least four years and the top picks to whom I assigned either and A or an F.

GM

Years

Duration

#1 Picks

#1 GPA

HoFs

AP/PB

4-yr Starters

#1 A’a

#1 F’s

Jack Vainisi

1950-59

10 years

11

2.4

6

20

24

Hornung, R. Kramer

Losch

Vince Lombardi

1960-68

9 years

13

2.33

2

8

14

Adderley, D. Robinson, Gillingham

Horn

Phil Bengtson

1969-70

2 years

3

1.67

0

1

5

R. Moore

Dan Devine

1971-74

4 years

5

1.8

0

4

6

Brockington, Buchanon

Tagge, Barry Smith

Bart Starr

1975-83

9 years

11

2.4

1

8

18

Lofton

R. Campbell

Forrest Gregg

1984-86

3 years

2

1.5

0

3

5

Carreker

Tom Braatz

1987-91

5 years

7

1.14

0

8

7

Sharpe

Mandarich, D. Thompson, V. Clark

Ron Wolf

1992-01

10 years

11

1.9

0

13

26

Michels, A. Edwards, J. Reynolds

Mike Sherman

2002-04

3 years

3

1.67

0

4

3

Carroll

Ted Thompson

2005-15

11 years

11

2.2

0

12

19

Rodgers, Matthews

Harrell, Sherrod

Totals

1950-15

76 years

77 picks

2.05

9

81

127

11

16

It’s clear the first round GPA is flawed. First, it’s based on my purely subjective grades. In addition, there is more to the draft than the first round. Ron Wolf’s first round record is weak by any measure, but he built a champion by drafting more solid starters, mostly in later rounds, than anyone else. (Of course, trading a first round pick for a Hall of Fame quarterback helped, too.) It also should be pointed out that his first round picks were generally later picks than Bart Starr, for example, by nature of Wolf building a better team.

Jack Vainisi had the advantage of drafting during a period when there were only 12-13 picks in the first round, making it more likely to find a good player in that round. Vainisi, though, found more blue chippers throughout the draft than anyone else. Vince Lombardi’s failure to continue drafting at Vainisi’s level ensured the end of the Packer dynasty.

In essence, Jack Vainisi collected Hall of Famers; Vince Lombardi collected draft picks; Bart Starr collected mediocrities; Ron Wolf collected solid starters and Ted Thompson follows in his mentor’s footsteps, though not quite as successfully. It should also be said that acquiring players through trades and free agency, hiring the right coaching staff and running a stable organization are all equally important in consistently fielding a winning team.